Considering Mary Jane's Past

Today's post concerns Amazing Spider-Man #259. I don't actually own it in its original form, just as a Marvel tales reprint, but that's good enough, right? Anyway, the issue is primarily Peter and Mary Jane walking through a park. See, MJ has just recently revealed that she knows Peter is Spider-Man*.

Peter is, as you might expect, concerned about this, since he considers Mary Jane to be a tad flighty, but MJ assures him that she'll keep his secret. From there, the issue sort of rolls into MJ revealing her family history to Peter. How her dad and mom married young, how dad, took a teaching job at the university, just to tide him over until he finished the next Great American Novel. Except it turns out he didn't have that in him, and he kept moving the family around looking for something to help. Eventually MJ, her mom, and older sister leave in the night, and start staying with relatives, and things sort of stabilize. MJ's older sister Gayle, repeats their mom's decision, marries her high school sweetheart early in college, and then surprise, he can't handle law school and a baby at the same time! Then their mom gets sick, and eventually MJ just sort of breaks off contact with her sister.

Anyway, the whole story is supposed to, I guess explain MJ's somewhat oddball behavior. She explains she had a tendency to play the class clown, or the free spirit that never let anyone get her down., with the former probably feeding the latter. Being a goofy sort is, I suppose, an easy way to be noticed when one is the new kid and needs to make friends, but if they act that way all the time, then it probably gets hard to show it when you're feeling blue, because you've created the impression it never happens.

Here's what I'm trying to get at. Mary Jane had, to my (extremely limited and maybe this whole thing had already been demonstrated to be false several years before this issue came out) knowledge, been primarily a party girl, kind of self-absorbed (possibly) type up to that point, though she would demonstrate moments of impressive insight or compassion from time to time**. With the addition of this backstory, it makes the happy-go-lucky personality more of a facade. Do you think that was a good idea?

One the pro side, I guess it mirrors what Peter does himself. When he puts on his mask and swings into the night, he's a different guy, all jokes and jibes. Yet, they're often designed to cover how nervous or even scared he is. That's his facade, just like the party girl is apparently Mary Jane's, so it can function as a level of connection between them. Plus, I suppose having such a nonchalant attitude towards most things could be seen as somewhat naive, given what we, as the reader, know goes on in the Marvel Universe, and Spider-Man's life in particular. We might look at Mary Jane and think 'How can you be so relaxed and upbeat? Don't you know what he's been through***?!'

On the other hand, I don't think it would be such a bad thing to have a character that focuses on the lighter, brighter side of life. They aren't necessarily unaware of the bleaker things that go on, but they choose not to focus on it. I think that could be depicted not as someone running from the pain in their past, but as someone who simply made a decision to view life that way, because they honestly think it's a better way to go. I know there's still the heavy risk of the character seeming hopelessly naive, especially in the Marvel Universe where things so often take the worst possible route they could, but I think that's why such a character could be useful. Someone who notices that it isn't all terrible, and while Peter's over here moping about this month's rent, or Aunt May being mad he dropped out of college, here's Mary Jane pointing out that the sun is shining, he stopped the Rhino from robbing that bank, he can sell the pictures to help pay the rent, and Aunt May still loves him, even if she's a little mad now, so no need to be so glum, chum.

So let me hear your opinion, if you have one.

* At this point, I think it was something she had just recently tumbled to (after the Puma attacked Pete in his apartment maybe), but then Kurt Busiek wrote a story years later that said MJ was staying with Aunt Anna the night Uncle Ben was killed, saw Peter run into his house, and saw Spider-Man crawl out Pete's window moments later, so she'd actually always known. I don't know if I like that, personally, but I'm also not sure whether that's still part of canon. {Edit: Well, I asked, and was answered. Kurt Busiek did use this in an Untold Tales of Spider-Man story, but is not the originator of the concept. It was Gerry Conway who originally established it in Spider-Man: Parallel Lives. I knew I recalled Mr. Busiek using it, and for some reason assumed he came up with the idea, probably because I'm not familiar with Parallel Lives. Those gaps in my knowledge get me every time. My bad.}

** I think one example would be after Gwen had died, and MJ's trying to talk to Peter and he lashes out, telling her to get lost because she never cared about Gwen, and MJ realizes he needs someone right then, so she stays, in spite of what he said.

*** Though, depending on when you decide she realized the truth about Peter, the answer could be no, she really didn't know what he'd been through, because he was holding it in.